Hermann Priess

Hermann Priess (24 May 1901-2 February 1985) was a Gruppenfuhrer of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany who led the 3rd SS Panzer Division during World War II.

Biography
Hermann Priess was born on 24 May 1901 in Marnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, German Empire. He served in the Baltic Freikorps during the Estonian War of Independence and was wounded near Riga, and in 1920 he returned to the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic back home in Germany. Priess joined the Nazi Party and Waffen-SS during the Interwar Years; on 1 May 1943, Priess was given command of the 3rd SS Panzer Division, serving on the Eastern Front and the Battle of Romania. Priess took command of the I SS Panzer Corps on 24 October 1944 towards the end of the war, leading it in the Battle of the Bulge. His last battle in the war was the failed Operation Spring Awakening offensive in Hungary, and in May 1945 he was captured by the US Army and held as a prisoner-of-war. Held responsible for the Malmedy massacre, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but in 1954 he was released and died in a retirement home in 1985.